NYPD pays homeless men as 'fillers' for lineups

A horde of homeless men typically rush the marked or unmarked NYPD vehicles, eager for the $10 payments

By John Surico
New York Daily News

NEW YORK — The cops descending on the Bedford-Atlantic Armory are all looking for the same guy: A homeless black male, about 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds, aged 19 to 25. Day after day, city police arrive at the enormous Crown Heights men’s shelter seeking “fillers” for NYPD lineups where crime victims are summoned to ID their assailants.

“Usually, we see two a day,” said Troy, 31, a black man from Flatbush who shrugs off any deeper implications of the practice. “Some days there’s more. Some days they don’t come at all.”

A horde of homeless men typically rush the marked or unmarked NYPD vehicles, eager for the $10 cash payment awarded for at least an hour of lineup work.